West Cork Chamber Music Festival Returns with “Music in Time of War”

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The Bantry festival will feature Ukrainian artists Diana Tishchenko and Anna Fedorova alongside the Calidore and Attacca Quartets.

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Bantry’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival will return for ten days of world-class music-making, with evening concerts forming the core of a programme shaped this year around the theme “Music in Time of War.” The event will run 26 June – 5 July.

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Across the festival, reflections on conflict, displacement and artistic resilience run through the works, with a special focus given to the brave people of Ukraine, represented by violinist Diana Tishchenko, pianist Anna Fedorova, and works by two Ukrainian composers. Ukraine’s most famous composer is the 88 year old Valentin Silvestrov, who in the early years of the Russian invasion had to be persuaded by friends to leave his home in Kyiv and move to Berlin, a re-run from three generations ago when Bartók, Korngold and so many others had to flee from the Nazis.

The theme resonates across centuries of music history: from Beethoven composing under the shadow of the Napoleonic Wars in Vienna, to Prokofiev’s fleeing and subsequent return to the Soviet Union during a turbulent political era, to Enescu’s deeply personal responses to war and displacement.

The festival also marks 250 years of American independence, reflected in the invitation of two leading US quartets – the Calidore Quartet and Attacca Quartet – and works by American composers including David Lang, Philip Glass and Caroline Shaw.

As ever, international quartets form the backbone of the programme, joined by a distinguished roster of soloists including Diana Tishchenko, Mairéad Hickey, Anna Fedorova, Lotte Betts-Dean, Andreas Brantelid, José Gallardo, Jérémie Moreau, Ben Goldscheider and many others. Ensembles include Delta Piano Trio, Concerto 1700, New Dublin Voices and the Gregory Walkers.

Beyond the main concerts, the festival offers lunchtime recitals, masterclasses, youth performances, a contemporary music focus with premieres including a new quartet by Donnacha Dennehy, and the Festival Fringe with free concerts across West Cork.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/ireland/article/West-Cork-Chamber-Music-Festival-to-Return-With-Music-in-Time-of-War-Theme-20260521)._